1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the extraction of a useful energetic product by selectively tapping energy for the energetic product from more than one energy source. More specifically, the invention relates to methods and devices which translate energy inherent in one phase or state of an energy rich medium to another medium which is separable from the first medium. For example, the catalytic reduction of a hydrogen containing liquid such as water in an electrolytic cell produces a hydrogen gas which comprises energy derived from the energy applied to a catalytic reducer from an external thermal source and from an electrical source applied to the electrodes of the cell.
2. Background Art
Increasingly large amounts of hydrogen are used in industrial processes and as propulsion fuel in space vehicles. In recent years, hydrogen is being touted as an ideal fuel for automotive and other engines. Hydrogen may also be the ultimate utility fuel, inasmuch as its combustion with oxygen produces pure water steam rather than pollutants. Even though these proposed uses of hydrogen are the subject of many technical papers, there is no widespread commercial use of hydrogen as a primary fuel.
In the book by Griffin et al., titled The Adoption of Hydrogen as a Universal Energy Source, it is stated: "If the appropriate technology of hydrogen fracturing from water could be brought to an economically viable state, then it would offer an energy source of immense significance for many applications with all the advantages arising from abundance of primary resource and cleanliness of use."
Since the early 1970's, efforts have been ongoing in the area of hydrogen production technology to find methods by which vehicles, planes, and boats might operate on various forms of water. To meet this need, numerous processes have been proposed for dissociating water into its elemental hydrogen and oxygen components, such as by electrolysis.
Automobiles fueled by hydrogen are known in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. While the potential excellence of hydrogen gas as an energy source has been demonstrated by superior performance in prototype uses, hydrogen is currently only considered to be available as a preprocessed fuel. Hydrogen under current investigation is either (1) pressurized, (2) liquified or (3) stored in metallic hydrides. In each case, such storage and related delivery of hydrogen has known inherent problems.
The major factor that currently precludes the use of hydrogen as an automobile or utility fuel is the cost of hydrogen fuel production using available techniques in comparison to the cost of more conventional fossil fuels. This is true even though hydrogen, by weight is three times more powerful than gasoline in terms of KJ's of energy.
Other problems relating to the use of hydrogen as a fuel include difficulties in storage and delivery. When electrically-conductive water is subjected to electrolysis in an electrolytic cell, the molecules of water dissociate into hydrogen and oxygen gases, and a fuel gas mixture including hydrogen and oxygen (and other gases formerly dissolved within the water) can be produced. According to Faraday's Law, in a regular electrolysis process, there exists an established measurable relationship between the current passed through an electrolytic cell and the chemical products of the electrolysis process. All known methods of hydrogen fuel production are subject to the limitation of Faraday's law.
There remains a need to provide a more satisfactory solution to the use of hydrogen containing liquid as a source of energy.